


won't treat you oh so typical

by adverbialstarlight



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Planet, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Basically, Canon Universe, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Magic, Post Season 6, Self-Sacrifice, Some Swearing, Sort Of, Team Dynamics, Teen Angst, Trapped, alien magic, idk i was really tired, ish, or something, uhh eventually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-06 02:14:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17336759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adverbialstarlight/pseuds/adverbialstarlight
Summary: Lance’s hands dropped to cover his face and he sighed again. “They didn’t give a shit about what I did. I was just the stupid little kid who can’t do anything because all my damn siblings have done it before.“And I kind of just—” he snorted, “I dunno. I thought maybe I wouldn’t have to end up as the dumb one out here anymore. That you guys wouldn't just treat me like some idiot who can’t do shit but has to do everything perfectly anyway. And you don’t, really, but I’m still the most useless paladin. I can’t hack the ships, I can’t fix all its mechanical stuff, I can’t control a teleduv, I’m not a badass emo ninja withtwocool swords and amazing piloting skills, I’m just… me.”





	won't treat you oh so typical

**Author's Note:**

> written for doodlr-the-procrastinator on tumblr in the paladin secret santa! as usual i swear i didn't mean to write 6k but i kind of finished then was like you know one of the other prompts was lance being badass so tired 3am brain did,, whatever the 4.8k thing is that i did beneath the line break. anyway hope its not too bad i usually dont write lance pov so it was interesting to do.
> 
> title from closer by tegan and sara bc all my titles are either emo, gay, or both.

Despite being the youngest child of five siblings, sometimes Lance couldn’t help but feel _older_ somehow. They say that when you’re the youngest child that your parents will pay you the most attention, but Lance had found that this simply wasn’t true.

Don’t get him wrong, he loved his parents and siblings with all of his heart, but sometimes he couldn’t help but feel overlooked.

The age gaps made it difficult; when Lance was seven, Marco was twenty, already moved out of their house and in college. Louis and Veronica were seventeen and graduating from high school, taking up all of his and their parents’ time. And Rachel was in her isolated, grumpy teenager phase and wanted to be left alone.

So there was no one there to notice when Lance was moved into the GT reading class, no one noticed how intuitive and clever he was. No one noticed how he began to read larger, more advanced novels than most of the boys his age and how his teacher regarded him with a sort of wonder, as if she could see all of the potential stored within him just waiting to be used.

There was no one to witness and nurture what could have become a brilliant child prodigy– a mind that could possibly even rival that of Katie Holt, younger sister of the famed Garrison cadet Matthew Holt. Instead a new HotWheels car was placed in front of him and Lance was barely spared another glance. Not when he got into the Garrison as well, something that was not an easy feat. Not when he stayed at the top of his class, second only to Keith Kogane.

Not until nearly ten years after that first spark, when officers from the Garrison came to the door and told his parents that he had gone missing in the middle of the night. It was the first time he'd stepped out of his sister and his classmates’ shadow.

When Lance had fantasized about this before, he’d always assumed it was because he did something super epic, like get a girlfriend who was some up and coming Hollywood actress or finally cooking the best pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. This was not how it was supposed to be.

Well, at least he was finally a central priority for his family– in the form of a funeral, probably, as he was flown out into space by a giant robotic cat with his two best friends, former rival, and former idol. The universe really had a way of twisting things into something not so great.

And a few fights with vicious purple aliens, one mechanical lion piloting switch, and one literal death later, here he sat now, slouched over on the sofa as Pidge and Hunk spoke rapidly about something that they had just programmed into the new Castle of Lions, completely oblivious to their friend just mere inches away.

Lance had tried to look over once or twice, only to be met with a variation of “this is too complicated for your peanut brain to understand, Lance”. After years of being told that very same thing over and over again it shouldn’t have affected him too much. He was fully aware how stupid he was, how much he _might have_ been if he didn’t have ADHD or dyslexia. How much of a waste he was, both on Earth and in space.

It seemed that everyone else was also somehow able to understand whatever his two friends were talking about, and that just left Lance alone and confused. Fantastic.

He heaved a sigh, leaning back again and staring out through the floor to ceiling glass window. Despite being demoted from _one of_ the stupidest people in the room to _the_ stupidest one in the room, being in space was actually pretty alright. Living on campus at the Garrison and in a large city before, it was rare to see anything beyond an airplane or the top floors of an office building in the air, but out here it was nothing but emptiness and the glistening of far away stars. Occasionally they’d see a nebula or some other weird space thing but ninety percent of the time, nothing. A perfect backdrop to his solitary.

Suddenly the sofa next to him dipped and Lance looked up to see Keith. “Hey, move your head,” he said, moving Lance’s body aside to sit next to him. Considering the size of the sofa, there was absolutely no reason for him to be sitting this close to him, to let Lance’s head fall back down onto his lap once situated in.

For a long moment the two just stared at each other, eyes unblinking. A brief thought flickered through Lance’s head– he’d never noticed how intricate Keith’s eyes were, the mystique only added to by the purple tint from the other boy’s Galran heritage. Lance could practically see _galaxies_ dancing in them, a billion different shades of violet, and an intense emotion that he had no idea how to interpret.

Keith tilted his head a bit. “You looked kind of, uh… sad. Is everything alright?” Lance averted his eyes and Keith continued quickly, a slight edge of anxiousness in his voice, “I can just go if you want, you don’t have to answer that. I just… wanted to see if you were alright. You now that we’re here for you whenever you need us, right? I’m here.”

Lance looked back at Keith with a small, sad smile. “Yeah, just kind of… missing home right now, just the usual. I’ll be fine. I guess it’s just that my brain hasn’t really processed yet that we’re out _here_ in space, defending the universe and whatever. I never thought that I would even go very far from Varadero, the Garrison was huge for me, really. And no one really cared when that happened, I was just following in Vero’s magnificent footsteps or whatever.

“People say that the youngest sibling always gets the most attention, but honestly I think that’s a load of bullshit. There’s always extra expectations to become as cool or successful or whatever as your older siblings and they don’t care about you _nearly_ as much as the older, accomplished ones.” Lance stared back up at the ceiling and huffed. “ _Why is your GPA just 3.9 unweighted, you know Marco’s was a 4.0 at your age_ ,” he said in a low, stern voice, an imitation of his father completed with all his hand gestures. “ _You know that Veronica got top of her class at the Garrison._ ”

Lance’s hands dropped to cover his face and he sighed again. “They didn’t give a shit about what I did. I was just the stupid little kid who can’t do anything because all my damn siblings have done it before.

“And I kind of just—” he snorted, “I dunno. I thought maybe I wouldn’t have to end up as the dumb one out here anymore. That you guys wouldn't just treat me like some idiot who can’t do shit but has to do everything perfectly anyway. And you don’t, really, but I’m still the most useless paladin. I can’t hack the ships, I can’t fix all its mechanical stuff, I can’t control a teleduv, I’m not a badass emo ninja with _two_ cool swords and amazing piloting skills, I’m just… me.”

“No.”

His eyes opened, arms pulling away from his face in surprise. It was the first time that Keith had really spoken during the whole tangent. His eyes were firm, free of any pity or humor as they bore into Lance’s, and for a moment the universe held its breath.

Lance tilted his head. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“Lance, I know I’m not the best with… words and emotions and all that, but believe me when I tell you that everything that you just said is absolute bullshit,” Keith said.

“What—”

“No, I’m not done yet. Just listen for a minute, alright?” Keith cut him off. Slowly, Lance nodded. “You might not believe this, but you are one of the most intelligent, selfless, and talented people that I have ever met. Deny it if you want, but it’s true, I swear. It’s shitty that none of them saw that, but I do and you are not dumb in the slightest. You’re here for a reason, Lance. If you weren’t meant to become a pilot of Voltron, if you didn’t have what it took to be a big player in this war, Blue would never have responded to you. You are a paladin of Voltron and more importantly, you’re our friend. You belong here, if you’d like to.”

For a long moment, Lance only stared. Then he giggled, rolling his eyes. “Oh come on, you don’t mean that. I think your mullet brain is messing with your thoughts.”

He hoped that the comment would distract Keith from the pink flush tinging his cheeks now. “And besides, it’s not like I’m _actually_ smart in any way. I can’t do any of that fancy hacking and building stuff that Pidge and Hunk can do. Compared to them, I kind of am a dumbass.”

When Lance turned and looked up at Keith, the other boy was not laughing. There was a mix of unreadable emotions in his eyes. Frustration, sadness, and—something else that made Lance’s chest flutter a bit.

“You don’t have to be running around reprogramming sentries and spewing complex algorithms no one has used in fifteen years to be a smart person, Lance,” he said. “Be all mopey and self deprecating all you want, but you _are_ a pretty clever person. And soon, you’re going to fucking see it,” Keith said quietly.

The conversation lightened after that, a small discussion about the next planet that they would be visiting, stories about Kosmo in the Quantum Rift and the time Pidge had tried to sneak a kitten into the Garrison. By the time Hunk called them over the coms for dinner, the conversation was almost completely forgotten. The soft smile Keith gave him as he helped Lance stand up, however, was not.

* * *

Lance was not one to keep a long list of aliens that he really hated, and really the only ones on there was Zarkon and Sendak, but the Serythsle people were really making their way onto the list right now too.

They were an intelligent, prideful species, and despite the water-like liquid that was currently rising and submerging the entire planet, they decided that Voltron needed to somehow _prove_ their legitimacy. Which was how the group—minus Shiro, Coran, and Romelle, it was a paladins-only challenge—ended up locked in a small box at the bottom of one of their holy lakes of a rose-tinted liquid that was dubiously safe for the humans to be in.

“I feel like this should be considered some sort of assault towards the paladins,” Lance said with a frown, leaning against one of the walls.

It was like one of those escape rooms that people of Earth liked to go to, except it was smaller and there was real danger if they didn't solve the room fast enough. If the water completely filtered in—Pidge had estimated maybe twenty minutes at least—then they were completely screwed.

“No,” Allura said through gritted teeth, “this is simply a ceremony to show us the Serythsle customs. They certainly do not mean to harm us.”

She attempted to keep her voice calm, but the rigidness of her shoulders and slight breathlessness told them she was just as freaked out about this as the rest of them.

When they had put their lions down to the planet, the group was recognized immediately. The dark teal aliens were something like a mix between human and crocodile, their voices critters and purrs as they placed kelp crowns on their heads and invited the team to try out one of their warrior initiation activities. When the aspect of teamwork and wit over brawn had slipped through, Shiro had practically launched the paladins into the box that, at the time, was at the base of the castle.

“C'mon, maybe it'll be fun, maybe it'll help establish diplomatic ties here. And you're paladins of Voltron, you can figure it out, how bad can it be?” he'd said. The next moment, the metal hatch slammed down and the group was launched into the ground.

“It'll be fun, how bad can it be?” Lance mimicked him in a high, jovial voice.

“Allura, if I may,” Keith spoke up. “It kind of feels like we’ve just been trapped in here to me too. And there’s no way to get out.”

And there really wasn’t. Even Pidge was stumped now with the little box on the door that was sealing them away from the surface. The great paladins of Voltron, defenders of the universe, were going to die in a tiny metal box submerged in pink water. Fantastic.

Lance wasn’t allowed to look at it, obviously. It was a job for the _smart ones_ , or Pidge, Hunk, and Allura. Keith didn’t volunteer himself. Lance had to admit it kind of stung that they wouldn’t even let him near the thing, but he was just the guy who pointed and shooted, so it was probably too complicated for him or something.

He tried to play it off like he didn’t care about it anyway. He went and leaned on the wall next to Keith, picking at nonexistent dirt under his nails and whistling instead, ignoring the slowly rising liquid. Yeah, they weren’t even going to _try_ to include the entire group in this. Alright. Everything was just fine.

“I just don't get it,” Pidge sighed. “There's got to be _some_ way out of here but there's literally nothing. We might as well just accept our deaths now.”

“Hey,” Keith said quietly, suddenly next to Lance. “You good?”

Lance nodded tiredly. “Yeah, don't worry about it. Have they figured out how to get us out of here yet?”

Keith shrugged, letting himself slide down the wall until he was squatting just above the liquid. “Who knows.”

“It honestly is kind of weird, this box simulator thing. I've been thinking, for whatever that's with. They said it's to prove your worth as a _team,_ right? I mean that probably means we should, I dunno, all be trying here, but it's kind of stupid. They're the smart ones not me.” Lance laughed bitterly glancing over at Keith again.

They hadn't really had another heart to heart like the one that had happened on the Castle of Lions. It felt like a distant memory now, rather than a recent event. Things had changed since then. There was simply no time for it.

They were short a castle ship. They had supposedly been asleep for three years in some weird time rift or whatever. They were on their way home.

When Lance caught Keith's gaze, the other boy was not smiling. He gave Lance a quizzical look, like he was an enigma that was impossible to solve. There was something like sadness and irrigation in his dark eyes, some sort of frustration. By there was nothing that Keith should be frustrated at right now, unless it was about how useless Lance was on the team. But that wouldn't have made sense, Keith could be a but of an asshole but not _that_ much.

“That actually could work, if we all tried to unlock it together or something. Some weird thing to solidify their message of friendship and trust or whatever,” Keith mused. “You may not be some immediate physics genius like Pidge, but you're still pretty clever, contrary to your current beliefs. You contribute to the team in a different way, in one that might be a bit more useful right now. Sure it takes you a bit more time for science, but you are not lacking in street smarts.”

Lance blushed and glanced away. Usually Keith did not say this much, he didn't just hand out compliments like this. He tilted his head in confusion. It was nice of him, but could he _actually_ contribute something useful to this?

“They think in logic,” Keith continued quietly, eyes on Hunk, who was looking at the lock itself, as if it might give him a clue on solving it. “And that's fine, logic is good. But creativity and out-of-box thinking is still needed. We're not getting out of here if you don't at least try, Lance. What's _around_ us in here? What could we use to get out of this thing?”

Confused, he nodded and turned to survey the few items in the room. He had no idea why Keith was helping him out, why he even cared or didn't just do it himself—Lane concluded it was Black Paladin Encouragement and Support For His Teammate, no more no less.

They were completely enclosed in the box, the only opening was the slits at the bottom where the pink liquid was trickling in as they were slowly submerged into the water. There were no ledges on the wall, no openings or trapdoors. There was five deep purple geometric shapes, one on each wall and one on the door and exactly mirroring the others—well, he assumed the one on the door was the same. Despite being the second tallest one in here, Pidge, Hunk, and Allura were still crowding it and Lance couldn’t really see anything but the beginning of an elaborate purple swirl.

Other than that, the tinted steel walls were bare, and even then the shapes were so small that Lance had to squint to see each of them. And then in the corner, sitting quietly so that he nearly missed it, a box. It was steel the same purple as the rest of the room, and still Lance internally face palmed. How hadn't they noticed it before?

Lance took the two steps it required to move over the the shelf and opened the box. His brows furrowed as he pulled out a carrot like vegetable. It was stiff, though the texture was waxy like a candle. The box held seven of them, varying in color from a bruised purple to olive green.

He scoffed. Alright, so he was playing Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, then. He was clearly supposed to find out how to use these not-carrots to escape before they were all drowned, but how? It wasn’t like there was just holes in the wall they could use to peg them in and Indiana Jones it out of—

Wait.

Lance stood up straight suddenly. The shapes on the wall, of course. He glanced back at Keith, who was doing his best to pace in the sloshy three square foot room, then back up. Maybe they had to use the carrots to activate the shapes on the walls. It was a really dumb idea, really, but Keith seemed to have put his trust in him, and Lance wasn’t about to prove himself unworthy of it. There was something about it—Keith believing that Lance could help get them out of this, in a way that didn’t include shooting things or flirting with things or being a dumbass—that made Lance feel like bursting into giddy giggles. _Keith_ thought that _Lance_ was smart enough to find them a way out of here, something that he’d never even dreamed of.

He caught Keith’s eye, nodding at him to come over. The two of them were tall enough that if Lance got a boost he could get to the first shape. It might not work, but at the same time they had nothing to lose so why the hell not? Though the ceilings were high, the liquid seemed to be pouring in faster by the second, and if they waited until they were to the level of the patterns, the water was too fast that they’d be crushed against the ceiling in an instant.

“I think that we might be able to do something with those rune things up there,” Lance muttered when Keith slid up next to him. The other boy glanced up the wall, brows furrowed.

When he caught sight of the runes, his eyebrows raised in surprise. “Huh, yeah it might be those. Can we reach them though?”

“We'd have to lift someone up to get there, the water would probably be too fast by the time we float up there. And since it's a big team building thing and there's five runes, all of have to do one. These candle Thunder could activate them,” Lance explained, thrilled that Keith's full attention was on him, taking in every word like they were worth something. And maybe to him they were.

Keith smiled a small, confusing smile and Lance felt his cheeks warm. “I dunno though, that's—it's just a hypothesis, I might be wrong,” he stuttered out quickly.

“No, it's good idea, really. I mean, there's no harm in trying it, right?”

Lance laughed bitterly, staring down at the knee-deep liquid. “Yeah, I dunno if anyone else would think that. I'm not a part of this discussion,” he said, gesturing back to the rest of the paladins. The room was so small that his fingertips almost touched Allura.

Keith raised an eyebrow. “Don't you though?”

“Keith—” Lance tried to say.

He knew that look. Something was about to happen and Lance was entirely sure that he would not like what it was.

Ignoring him, Keith turned to the other three. “Alright, Lance has a plan to get us out of this thing. It might not work, but it's worth a chance before we drown in this stuff.” He shot Lance a look, prompting him to explain.

He managed to stutter it out, and to his surprised they all agreed. Keith, however, did not. He only gave him another small nod before turning to help Allura up towards the rune on the door. Lance wasn’t sure how all of them would get to the runes, someone would have to be left on the ground until the not-water—slowly rising to waist level on him, nearly taking up Pidge’s entire torso—was high enough to get them there.

Lance had volunteered to, having the longest arms and being the second tallest of the group. He hoped that his armor was sturdy enough that he _did_ happen to slam into the wall first, he wouldn’t just immediately become a splatter on the ceiling. As he watched Hunk boosted Pidge up onto his shoulders so she would be able to reach, Lance almost laughed aloud at the thought. It would be a rather morbid ending, but at least the stain would be washed away quickly after.

Pidge picked up her not-carrot from the belt at her waist, frowning at it for a moment then at the rune on the wall. “I have full trust in you Lance,” she said, “but uh, are we sure this is going to work? I don’t know how magicy logic works, but in mine this seems kinda… really weird and confusing. But won’t hurt anything if we try I guess.”

The moment that she lifted the rod to the rune, it began to glow.

Lance held his breath. _Please don’t let this be a trap, please don’t let this be a trap_ —

Pidge pressed it to the wall, and the center of the rune seemed to absorb at least two inches of it, changing the rod and the rune to a dark indigo. She pulled at it, raising an eyebrow when the it remained solid. “Uh, I might be able to just hang on to this,” she said, her other hand going to grab it as well. The bar held.

When Allura pressed hers to the rune on the door, it did the same. The not-water was nearly to Lance’s neck now and tingly on his skin, but he refused to get intimidated by it. Once she was standing solidly on hers, Keith and Lance did their best to wade over to help lift Hunk. Their armor was getting heavy with all the liquid it was absorbing, and the insides of Lance’s boots were sloshy but he pushed forward; there would be no complaining about his damp armor in a few seconds if they didn’t get up soon.

Once Hunk was solidly balancing on his wall, Lance was already pushing through the deep water to pick Keith up. He stepped back quickly, eyes narrowed. “No. I don’t know what kind of martyr thing you’re trying to pull right now, but I’m not taking it. We’re all getting out of here, okay?”

Lance held back an exasperated sigh. Honestly he should have seen this coming. The water was rising quickly though and there was no time for them to argue over how they both had obnoxious streaks of self sacrifice. Ignoring his protests, Lance fully hoisted Keith up, forcing the other to cling to the wall as well. As Lance swam towards the last rune, he could feel Keith’s glower following him, as well as the anxiety and alarm coming from his three other teammates.

“You’d better not move from there,” he said over his shoulder.

It was at the point now where if he reached up, one of the other paladins could easily lift him up onto their own makeshift platform but still he fought the current of the liquid. He wasn’t sure why, but there was something telling him that he _had_ to get there. Even if he swallowed the entire lake, even if his lungs burned and undersuit was squishy, Lance had to.

The water continued to rush in, the waves became more violent, and Lance was choking when his hand reached out and finally he could feel the solid plank beneath the last rune. He spit out the not-water and wiped his eyes as he tried to pull himself up.

Over his time as a paladin of Voltron, Lance liked to think that he’d gotten pretty strong, pretty tough, and adaptable. But as he tried to lift his body, it was like all his energy had been sapped and he just _couldn’t_. He scowled. It must’ve been something in the liquid.

Glancing up—partially to look at his teammates, partially to keep his head above not-water and to see how much space was left to the ceiling—Lance wondered if the other paladins were feeling fatigued as well. He’d assumed it was just the anxiety that came in getting trapped in a box that was going to slowly drown him and his space family, but now he wasn’t so sure. Stupid holy alien not-water.

From the corner of his eye, then, a flash of black and red. It was Keith, diving back in and swimming quickly over to Lance. The liquid seemed to part for him like the Red Sea, and Lance blinked in surprise when suddenly they were only mere inches away.

“Hey what’re you doing,” Lance slurred, a small frown coming to his lips. “I thought I told you not to move.”

“What’re _you_ doing,” Keith replied, pulling at Lance’s waist. “I thought _I_ told _you_ that we’re all getting out of this thing alive. Why’re you still just sitting here?”

Lance’s eyes widened and the fog over his mind broke for a moment. “Woah dude,” he said, laughing nervously. “If you wanted a piece of this—”

The chuckle quickly became a cough, and he winced as not-water came flying from his lungs, unable to finish the sentence. From the exasperated glare that he got from Keith—though there was also undeniable concern mixed into it as well—it was probably for the best. The only thing keeping him from completely drowning right now was Keith’s hold on him as he treaded in the liquid, and he looked ready to just let him fall into it at the next stupid thing that came out of his mouth.

“There’s—there’s something weird in this water stuff,” Lance wheezed out instead. “Like, I can pretty much not move. You should get back before it decides on sucking everything out of you, too.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “And leave you just waiting to drown in this stuff? I’d rather not. We don’t have time for this c’mon. I’m going to lift you and you’re going to actually get yourself up there this time, yeah?”

Lance remembered then that Keith’s hands were still firmly around his middle, and if he weren’t feeling so exhausted right now, he’d probably have blushed at the touch. Keith held him firm but gently, and Lance could only stare in disbelief when suddenly he was at eye level with the runes.

“Lance,” Keith said through gritted teeth. “Any time today would be _great_.”

“I don’t think I appreciate your attitude, sir,” Lance replied but still he pulled the last waxy carrot thing from his belt loop and slid it into the hole. Beneath him Keith shuddered and suddenly his grip loosened.

Lance barely had time to grab the peg before turning back down and catching Keith’s wrist, fighting the lethargy eating away at his muscles as he tried to keep the other boy’s head above the surface. His grip on the peg slipped a bit and Lance’s eyes widened, eyes squeezing tight.

They weren’t going to make it. His plan had failed, they couldn’t do it and—

Suddenly the rising not-water stopped, falling still except for where Keith’s lax body was beginning to pull the two down again. The runes on the walls began to glow. Keith had still placed the not-candle into the wall under his rune. But Lance couldn’t care too much about that now, not when his eyelids were feeling heavier and heavier, fingers finally loosening entirely.

Then there was darkness.

When Lance awoke, it was in a stiff bed with pale yellow sheets that was directly in front of a large mirror made of some sort of red wood-like material. He was out of his paladin armor and in a loose shirt with slightly too long on the sleeves, his hair an absolute mess. In the chair beside him, Pidge was asleep, her glasses skewed and bayard sitting underneath her foot.

“Huh?” he muttered.

Immediately Pidge jumped up and her glasses completely fell off her face. Undeterred she strode right up to the bed—which, Lance had to confess was actually pretty comfortable—and pointed a finger in his face.

“You have some nerve,” she told him. “What the fuck even _was_ that? You think you can just try to drown and no one’s going to care? You’re lucky that weird plan worked, nice job by the way. You’ve been out for like two days, dude. God, just wait until Keith and Shiro come back, they’re going to kick your ass.”

She continued on to say something else about the pathetic knock off pizza but decent cookies in this weird hospital’s cafeteria but Lance’s mind was beginning to drift again. It had worked—somehow, despite the ridiculousness and anxiety that hand followed, his moronic plan had worked. It worked. He was a goddamn genius.

“Holy shit,” Lance muttered. “This means that I could, like, win the Hunger Games or something, right? If I was able to get us out of there then for sure that I’d be able to face down Katniss Everdeen in a—”

“Yeah, how about don’t do that,” a new voice in the door said. Lance looked up from his fidgeting hands and couldn’t help the small grin when he saw Keith standing in the doorway, one of the cafeteria cookies in one hand and a bundle of dark fabric in the other. “I think I’ve had enough fights to the death against stupid opponents in cramped spaces for the week, I think.” He gave a small smile of his own, one that made Lance’s already quick pulse become even quicker. Keith came around the bed, stopping by the small table right next to Lance’s face. “Hi,” he said quietly. “Nice to have you back.”

“Yeah, it’s nice to be back. Heard I was out for a little bit, did you miss me?” Lance replied. His voice was teasing, though he felt as if he’d just run a marathon instead so it was a bit breathy.

Pidge got up from her perch at the foot of the bed, picking up her glasses and bayard as she went. “And this is my cue to leave,” she announced, slamming the door shut as she left.

Both boys flushed, looking away from each other. There was another long pause before Keith said quietly, “Yeah, I guess I did.”

He looked up to see Keith already staring at him, and their eyes met once more. “Oh,” Lance said, barely a whisper. He wasn’t sure what to say. Keith was _not_ one to say things like this, and he desperately wanted to break the tension and make a joke about it but the words were stuck in his throat. What did that _mean_ , did he mean it like _the team missed him_ , or did he mean that _Keith_ himself missed him. It probably wasn’t the latter, but still Lance felt another strong flutter in his chest.

There were probably bigger things to address right now than how soft Keith’s hair looked against the two setting magenta suns, how much he wanted to reach out and—Lance caught his hand lifted, sticking it back to his side immediately. What kind of anesthetics had they given him here?

 _Focus_ , he scolded himself.

“Er, sorry about that. I didn’t mean for all of this,” he gestured to the hospital room, “to happen. I just… wanted to, I don’t know. I wanted to seem _smart_ for once, to prove to you guys I was good enough to be on the team or something. That even though I’m still the dumb one that I can sometimes contribute something that’s worth a shit. Sorry. Endangering the team—endangering you—that wasn’t supposed to happen. But if I just stayed there and let you all drown, I wouldn’t be able to live with that. So for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

Somehow Keith stepped even closer, coming to perch on the bed, just narrowly missing Lance’s legs. Not that he’d mind that too much. _Focus._

For a long moment they sat there in silence, Keith’s brows furrowed the same way they always did when someone—usually Lance—did something that was complete and utter bullshit. But why would he?

“Lance,” he said finally. “You’re always going to be important to us. Voltron wouldn’t be able to be formed without you, none of us would’ve gotten out of that box thing and… I don’t know what I would do if you weren’t here with me. Even with the Serythsle and their stupid death boxes, you’re still super fucking smart, you know that? When I told you that one time on the castle ship… I really did mean it, you know.”

Blushing, Lance looked away. “Thanks, but I know you don’t really mean that,” he muttered fidgeting with the end of the bedsheet. Gentle fingers brushed his jaw, forcing him to look up then, and Lance’s eyes widened as they met Keith’s determined violet ones. “Wh—”

“I do. I mean it all And if I’ve got to tell you that again just so you get it through your damn thick skull, I will.”

Neither of them moved away, and Lance stared at Keith in wonder. He opened his mouth the same time that Keith did, the words pouring out quickly before he could take them back.

“I want to kiss you.”

“I like you.”

They stared at each other in shock, any words lost. Lance was frozen, shoulders stiff and mouth slightly agape. What did he just do? What the _hell_ did he just do? Keith was probably going to just slap him, or avoid him forever, and things would be awkward and it was all because Lance couldn’t keep his damn mouth shut. He wanted to just fall into a hole and die of shame in silence but…

 _I like you_. No. That couldn’t mean that he actually _liked_ Keith like that. But if it did, then...

“You—I—oh.”

Keith crossed his arms, looking away finally. “Sorry. You don’t have to say anything or do anything just… thought you should know.” His shoulders were tense, expression closed off, and he began to turn and leave. He clearly hadn’t heard what Lance said either.

Lance panicked. What was he supposed to do now? His hand reached out and leaned forward as far as he could, catching Keith’s sleeve before he could get the the door and turning him back around. Their noses were nearly touching, and Lance’s breath caught. Why did he do that? What was he supposed to do next? If he leaned forward, if he closed that small gap, what would Keith do? What if he didn’t mean it like that, if Lance was about to make a horrible mistake.

Their eyes met for a brief moment, a silent conversation. Lance tilted his head in the slightest nod and then suddenly his senses were completely flooded with Keith—his soft hair and sweet lips, his calloused fingers and heavy breaths as his lips gently brushed Lance’s.

The faint fluttering in his chest increased by a tenfold, but all he could feel was warm as he smiled against Keith’s mouth. He hadn’t been pushed away, Keith wanted this as well, somehow. He wanted _Lance_. He pulled Keith in closer, inhaling deeply. “How are you even real,” Lance marveled, eyes cracking open a bit to take in Keith’s own look of surprise and happiness.

He blushed, glancing down to Lance’s hands, putting his own paler ones rest atop them but otherwise not moving. Lance smiled a bit, but his heart lurched when suddenly Keith looked back up at him through dark eyelashes. “I dunno,” he said in barley a whisper, “how’re _you_ real?” Keith leaned forward again to catch Lance’s lips with his own. “So intelligent. And selfless. And beautiful,” he muttered in pauses between each short peck.

This time it was Lance who blushed even as he moved to let their foreheads rest against each other. “You don’t really mean that,” he scoffed.

Keith’s dark eyes met his own, the serious and stubborn spark filling them. “I mean every word,” he said lowly. “And if I’ve got to tell you every single day, every single goddamn day, I’ll do it.” He paused, and then, more bashfully, “That is, if you’ll allow me to?”

Lance shook his head with a fond smile but shrugged, pulling at Keith’s sweater again to kiss him quickly. “I guess I’ll allow it,” he said finally. And yeah, he definitely would if it made Keith's eyes light up in satisfaction like that.

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact most of this was written at 1-3am in comic sans in november to motivate me to finish quicker and so now at 3:30 am i am posting. anyway hopefully it was ok if you got confused from the second part dont worry so did i. if you want leave a comment/kudos to make me cry and bye
> 
> [tumblr](https://adverbialstarlight.tumblr.com) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/adverbialnouns)


End file.
